© 2006 All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute or repurpose this work without written permission from the copyright holder(s).
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Languages are thoroughly organic entities. Each one is complex and versatile, constantly shifting according to the needs of those who use it. When social, political or environmental changes create a gap in a language, its individual speakers use creativity and problem-solving skills to generate a solution. Successful changes to the language are spread quickly and often intuitively.
Another example of creativity influencing language is when small groups of children invent their own languages; however these do not tend to be languages in the fullest sense. They are typically simple, and based on the structures and/or vocabularies of languages that the children already know; they tend to function more as secret codes than anything else.
In at least one case, however, a group of children was able to spontaneously invent a totally new language out of necessity. The children in question were deaf, illiterate, and devoid of all but the most basic language skills, yet they were able to devise an intricate method of communication to use amongst themselves. Nicaraguan Sign Language (or ISN, for either Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua or Idioma de Signos Nicaragüense) is a unique and remarkable linguistic phenomenon of recent years.
After the Sandinista revolution of 1979, Nicaragua opened a school program for deaf children at a special-education center as part of a nationwide campaign to increase literacy. A second school started operating in 1980, and by 1983 the two schools had 400 students between them.
However, progress proved hard to come by. There was no access to any of the hundreds of established sign languages from around the world; instead, the students were instructed in lip-reading and alphabet finger-spelling. Overall, though, the children seemed to retain very little of what they were taught. Because the young students had virtually no language skills, the finger-spelled letters meant nothing to them.
This was unsurprising. Prior to these attempts at teaching them to communicate, deaf children in Nicaragua had interacted with their respective families via idiosyncratic systems of very rudimentary gestures (known as mimicas in Spanish). This meant that deaf children from different families couldn’t even understand each other, let alone form friendships.
But an interesting effect appeared once the many deaf children had begun interacting in the group setting of the schools. The children started learning and elaborating on one another’s mimicas, and the resulting system of signs rapidly grew. The amazed teachers watched as their students began to communicate quite successfully among themselves. This was immeasurably more than any little ‘secret code’ based on an existing, spoken language; these children were inventing the entire structure of ISN along with the vocabulary. They were, in a sense, teaching themselves to use language in general.
When the Nicaraguan Ministry of Education became aware of ISN, its members found themselves baffled by the phenomenon. They asked for help from sign-language specialist Judy Shepard-Kegl, then of Northeastern University in Boston. Intrigued, she set out for Nicaragua to document and analyze the fledgling language. She boldly started out by directly interacting with deaf teenagers at a vocational school. There, she was able to figure out a handful of the more straightforward signs – such as “house” and “what’s up?” – but found herself confounded by the majority of the communication. Frustrated, Kegl moved on to a school for younger children.
The difference between the teenagers’ and the children’s language was striking. The younger speakers of ISN included many more subtleties – for example, verb agreement, in which the number, gender, and/or location of the subject(s) is indicated with verb inflection. It was obvious that the children were using their language at a substantially more fluent level than the teenagers, a finding which coincided with the theorized “critical period” for language acquisition. The idea holds that, in general, young children can rapidly absorb and master new languages until the age of six; the ability declines quickly until age twelve, and after that any acquisition of a new language requires substantially more effort.
In the case of ISN specifically, Kegl suggests that the gestures exchanged by the older students were interpreted by the younger ones as language input. The younger children learned the gestures and very naturally began to add to them, filling in any linguistic gaps encountered along the way. This was what allowed ISN to become a language, rather than a mere set of signs. At this point the older children learned ISN from their younger classmates; their less fluent usage was akin to any second-language acquisition in adulthood. Of course it is still possible that the language could change over time, but it has developed enough that the process would be no different from the gradual shifts of any language.
Kegl and her husband, James Shepard-Kegl, went on to found two experimental schools – the Escuelita de Bluefields and Escuelita de Condega – to teach and observe ISN directly. Teachers at the schools are careful not to introduce any elements of other sign-language systems; these could possibly contaminate the development of ISN. The language now has an estimated 900 to 1200 signers.
The implications of a spontaneously-created language are numerous. Prominent linguists such as Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker have interpreted ISN’s birth as evidence supporting their respective theories that human beings possess an innate capacity for complex language. Obviously it would be unethical to perform an experiment to see whether a group of children left to grow up completely isolated will develop a language, but the circumstances under which ISN was born were similar.
Late prominent American Sign Language researcher William Stokoe, however, believed that the development of ISN may have been helped along by the children’s limited exposure to Spanish and to other forms of signing. Either way, it is incredible that such an elaborate language was improvised and refined by a group of children who had never truly read or heard a single word. ISN’s origins – along with the fact that it is still thriving after twenty years – stands as a testament to the human mind’s natural ambition to express complex ideas, even in the face of serious obstacles.
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Phurst!
And Damn Interesting.
Remarkable!
I remember finding it suprising that sign language was different in the US than here in the UK. The whole alphabet in the US can be gestured with one hand – a distinct advantage I would have thought.
One thing which suprised me further was when I was snowboarding with a couple of American friendswho were deaf, they would often converse with one another on the lift whilst wearing mittens – I was baffled!
A bi-lingual friend of mine tried to explain it to me; they said that conversations were often predicatable in any given situation, so the mitted-hand was shapely enough to insinuate a statement and more easily, a reply.
Try it for a few days, when you notice someone about to speak, try and predict what they are going to say.
p.s. Great atricle by the way, I hope I haven’t strayed to far from the subject :)
Thanks for the great article, that’s damn interesting, indeed! I find it particularly intriguing that they developped an apparently quite complex grammar (more of my thoughts on this at http://christianflury.com/blog/2006/11/the_nicaraguan_sign_language.html). Fascinating!
Very cool ! DI does it again.
That is pretty incredible.
I wonder though about, “teachers at the schools are careful not to introduce any elements of other sign-language systems; these could possibly contaminate the development of ISN.” Wouldn’t isolating ISN students from other language elements actually prevent the language from developing naturally?
Look at other languages; if there is interaction between speakers of different languages, terms are shared between them, and both are positively affected by such “contamination”. There are many terms in other languages that have no equivalent – or inadequate equivalents – in English, but terminology from other languages has found common use among English speakers.
just_dave said: “That is pretty incredible.
I wonder though about, “teachers at the schools are careful not to introduce any elements of other sign-language systems; these could possibly contaminate the development of ISN.” Wouldn’t isolating ISN students from other language elements actually prevent the language from developing naturally?
Look at other languages; if there is interaction between speakers of different languages, terms are shared between them, and both are positively affected by such “contamination”. There are many terms in other languages that have no equivalent – or inadequate equivalents – in English, but terminology from other languages has found common use among English speakers.”
I would suppose that they are trying not to contaminate this “naturally occuring” experiment. The thinking is probably something like “allow them to continue on their own and see where they go with it”. That would likely prove more interesting than trying to “teach” them how to shape it.
I find it incredibly interesting, and I imagine that by allowing them to create it themselves, the language is probably more efficient than if the “teachers” were to teach them things that they knew. Very cool article, kudos to David for suggesting it, and Marisa for the work on it!!
Wow. I notice the loophole in the sentence “teachers at the schools are careful not to introduce any elements of other sign-language systems; these could possibly contaminate the development of ISN.”, in that they are not exposing them to SIGN language from other systems, but I really hope they are exposing them to the written forms of language. In that way the ISN can be translated into the written word so they can communicate better with others in their society. It would be sad and tragic of they ended up being able to communicate only by signing and were isolated from the rest of society.
Perhaps as a further experiment, they may take all students who arrive after a certain date and start exposing them to ALL forms of sign language. See what develops from that… polyglot signers, a new language that is made up of signs from the total of the rest of the world, or just “borrowing” signs from other systems to supplement ISN the way English has words like “deja vu” and “maitre’d” thrown in. After all, everyone in Japan knows what the words “ball”, “strike” and “out” mean in English in the context of baseball.
Good job Marisa, DI!
Cool. And, I only recently found out that sign language has dialects, like spoken language.
Great article! Makes me want to know even more about this. I wonder, is ISN considered a “pidgin,” technically? Or are the children really “speaking” it as a first or native language?
ISN is something you learn about if you take a linguistics class…well, if you take a good linguistics class. What this article doesn’t have, which would be great, is examples of the language itself. What is missed is some of the more interesting facets of ISN; there is no developed alphabet as the children weren’t literate enough to “translate” in that manner; almost all (at least when I learned of it) of the language is made of gestures of nouns and actions. One example we learned was a ball rolling; a ball was made up of a fist, and the verb roll was the act of rotating the hand. The most interesting thing is that to express speed the gesture itself was sped up; an adverb (such as rapid) would be hard to express in a language made up mostly of sight-based input (take that very liberally; nouns and verbs), as the community is not influenced by other languages to find it necessary to add new symbols for abstracts. At least, that is what I can remember about it (and to other linguists out there: I forgot almost every linguistic term, especially if it was Chomskian. And my major was Japanese Linguistics, so I’m really of no help in the western world).
To answer some questions: “Wouldn’t isolating ISN students from other language elements actually prevent the language from developing naturally?” Not given their environment, and the content/context of their conversations. If you were to introduce new language elements, it would just complicate the language, as it is a simple construct of nouns and verbs. It functions with as little clutter as possible, as the gestures directly represent something without the need for all the linguistic crap we have to put in our sentences. The children introduce new words as necessary based on need, and until comes a time when it has matured more or is “spoken” by a few more thousand, it is unlikely that complex concepts or abstracts will be expressed. To introduce new language elements or words would mean that the children would have to learn entirely new ways to express them, which might not be possible in ISN, which would require the language to be dropped in favor of a language with more set absolutes and, most importantly, wordbase. How would they express economics? By letting the kids run with it, they will have to create terms for those kinds of things on their own (if they ever get around to it), they will create a structure that already coincides with their grammar, and their language will be able to evolve. I really didn’t answer that question. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink it. I don’t think the kids would be willing to learn a language totally foreign to them when their own works so well, and really, why would they even need to learn complex things they don’t have a need for? (this…string of thought continued with the next question)
“Is ISN considered a ‘pidgin?” Nope. It’s a native language to them, as there isn’t any real outside sign influence, they don’t really incorporate outside signs as it is too…hmmm…not complicated, just “strange.” It would be the same as comparing early Kanji to late Kanji. Early Kanji (realllllllly early) was more pictographic; a tree looked like a tree, and even people unfamiliar with the spoken language could see the “tree” and think “oh it’s a tree.” If someone who used early Kanji saw late Kanji, they’d ask why the tree looks so different, because now not everyone can read it. Same kinda thing with this language; why use a complex form over a simple?
Apologies for just blabbing and not making any sense, I haven’t slept in a while and I don’t feel like finding sources to support my claims. Or re-learning linguistics, I should probably do that too. Oh, and linguistics are really, really DI. It doesn’t really sound like it I know, but if you study the why we speak and why we speak certain things at certain times, it gets real fun; go social linguists!
This was also covered in Steven Pinker’s The Language Instinct if anyone wants to read more.
Damn interesting, but a far more useful article would be one that deconstructs the grammatical principles behind pirate talk.
donlaudanny said: “deconstructs the grammatical principles behind pirate talk.”
Jack Sparrow fan I see…
I remember growing up in El Salvador and meeting deaf kids who would use “mimicas” to communicate. I remember how these kids were not considered mentally normal. Its incredible to find out that these same kids could build their own language.
Most of the kids were very protected by their families and didn’t interact much with other kids. Its a shame to think that the lack of interaction with kids, and especially other deaf kids, probably impeded their development.
nath said: “One thing which suprised me further was when I was snowboarding with a couple of American friendswho were deaf, they would often converse with one another on the lift whilst wearing mittens – I was baffled!
A bi-lingual friend of mine tried to explain it to me; they said that conversations were often predicatable in any given situation, so the mitted-hand was shapely enough to insinuate a statement and more easily, a reply.”
It’s probably the same as the way the hearing can usually understand people who talk with their mouth full.
Maybe I’m missing some point here (although I do admit that it may still be interesting how children can develop their own fully defined means of communication devoid of adult ministrations), but I don’t see how this is such a major discovery. Isn’t it an intuitive deduction that humans have the innate ability with which to form languages to communicate?
After all, we see it everyday in the computing world – take note of the hundreds of computer programming languages created, for example. Or say, the language of the arts – song, dance, film, etc. They’re all a means with which to infer context, meaning and expression.
Maybe it’s finally an opportunity for linguists to observe what they consider to be a major linguistic development in real time. Maybe linguists finally have something to do besides study dead languages. :P
I’m not surprised though. I believe mankind is not even barely fulfilling its potential and this is just one example of what we can do.
…speaking of esoteric languages, anyone ever hear of Esperanto? Does anyone know how to speak it?
another viewpoint said: “…speaking of esoteric languages, anyone ever hear of Esperanto? Does anyone know how to speak it?”
Esperanto is not all that esoteric, see esperanto.org No, I do not speak it. I have enough difficulty with English.
Interesting comments, guys! (Thanks, Denki, for the more specific information – appreciated!)
donlaudanny said: “Damn interesting, but a far more useful article would be one that deconstructs the grammatical principles behind pirate talk.”
But they only have one letter in their alphabet (‘R’)! * laughs *
Isn’t it an intuitive deduction that humans have the innate ability with which to form languages to communicate?
Well, it’s pretty widely accepted, but not universally so. This is a bit oversimplified, but there are also those who believe humans interact because of the mere presence of other humans – i.e. we learn everything we know about communication from having others around.
Oh that is AWESOME!! WOW!
Kinda makes you wonder if the first cavemen were really the primitive grunters that we have becomed so accustomed to stereotyping. Personally, I don’t think so.
AMAZINGLY DI, Brook!
Reminds me of Bartleby. I would prefer not to.
Thats pretty intense, I wish I could invent a language…
DI Marisa! And thanx to Denki for the supplement as well…
Since so much of how people communicate is through facial expressions, I wonder if the kids could’ve had as rapid a success, or success at all, if they all wore blank stares 24/7.
just_dave said: “That is pretty incredible.
I wonder though about, “teachers at the schools are careful not to introduce any elements of other sign-language systems; these could possibly contaminate the development of ISN.” Wouldn’t isolating ISN students from other language elements actually prevent the language from developing naturally?
Look at other languages; if there is interaction between speakers of different languages, terms are shared between them, and both are positively affected by such “contamination”. There are many terms in other languages that have no equivalent – or inadequate equivalents – in English, but terminology from other languages has found common use among English speakers.”
JUST DAVE??? I call myself Not Dave!!! Lol, another coinky-dink for ya!
Oh yeah, and the article was good and all that.
Damn Interesting, and I applaud you. I’ve never heard of this before, but it reminds me of the cases where identical (or fraternal, but I’m sure those are less common) twins come up with their own languages, and don’t learn English (or Mandarin, or Sanskrit or whatever) until later.
What denki said was really interesting, too- especially the bit with a ball rolling, and how one would rotate the hand faster to indicate speed.
I invented a language, it’s called “grunts” I bet you’ve heard it.
Well, I’m a twin, and we never developed languages. We just know each other well enough that we barely have to talk at all about everyday things.